Bill Kristol: Rand Paul not quite ‘presidential’

Conservative pundit and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol isn’t ready to call the 2016 Republican nomination for any of the potential candidates, but he’s not sure Sen. Rand Paul is “presidential” enough to make it all the way to the top of the ticket.

“Paul has had a few of these incidents where he looks sloppy, at the least in the way he’s conducted himself. And he’s a U.S. senator; he’s not some local guy or an activist running a blog,” Kristol told radio host Geraldo Rivera on Wednesday. “He’s hit a chord on some issues, but I’m not sure he’s quite up to the presidential level.”

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Kristol wouldn’t say the plagiarism scandal precluded Paul from mounting a successful presidential race, but he did point out the field is crowded and that there’s little room for sloppiness.

“A million people are going to run, and there are a million different angles for the soul of the party, including Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal, Paul Ryan and Rand Paul,” Kristol said. “People don’t expect politicians to write all their stuff, but they don’t expect them to copy stuff from other people or their staff to do so.”

Kristol pushed back against the idea that any potential candidate has emerged as an early front-runner in the Republican field but says there are strong contenders emerging.

“[Christie] is in the very top tier of candidates,” Kristol said, pointing to the New Jersey governor’s landslide reelection victory Tuesday.